Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Numbers Letters and Colors Oh My!

So lately I've been listening to this great show called Radio Lab out of New York City. It's great because they analyze all this crazy scientific stuff that happens in the world whether it be about animals, humans, space, or whatever. It's a good way to pass the time as I ever so patiently wait to start my new position the week after next.


Anyway, I was just listening to this crazy episode about pushing the human body to its limits both physically and mentally. There was this whole story about these women who did the Ironman competition and how they literally have to crawl to the finish line at the end because their bodies are so exhausted and then there's the story about a dude who can remember all this crazy shit. They said that he has this condition called synaesthesia, which is some weird thing that happens when your brain is developing and you get your senses mixed up. So this dude has this incredible memory because he's somehow subconsciously assigned music, smells, colors and whatnot to numbers and letters and words and things. It's crazy! Then I realized that I probably don't, but maybe I do have a slight case of synaesthesia! Hell, I'm going to say I do because...

Ever since I can remember I've assigned a color to each digit 1-10 and a gender, male or female (and one hermaphrodite, no I'm not kidding), for each letter of the alphabet. Have I shared this before on LJ? I know not (my memory isn't that good). But I will share this now! It goes like this:

1 is white, 2 is yellow, 3 is green, 4 is dark red, 5 is light blue, 6 is tough; either a darker yellow or a fushia, 7 is green, 8 is dark blue, 9 is dark purple, 10 is white.

As for the alphabet, most letters are male. But there are a few females who consist of A, K, P, Q, R, V, and Y. X is the hermaphrodite. I think of it as predominately male with a few female characteristics. It's kind of like the number 6.

Sure I could just be making this up on the fly, but I'm not! This has been with me forever! For instance, I remember being cast in a play about the alphabet when I was a wee little 1st grader as the letter C. THE LETTER C?!?! But that's a boy! I remember being disappointed. I tried so hard to change the letter C from boy to girl in my mind, but it never stuck and therefore it was my first and only male role.

When I was 2 1/2 years old I moved into what was the house that I spent my childhood in. I remember happening upon a cat. In my little toddler mind, all dogs were male, all cats were female. It's how it was no matter what my mom or dad told me otherwise. I named the cat Kate because the letter K was so obviously a girl letter to me, Kate seemed to be the pefect fit. Of course the cat was male, and that's why I now talk about my childhood and my "man cat named Kate".

Oh and I've always had this weird relationship drama going on with the numbers as well. Since 4, 6, and 9 are girls they've been real bitches to each other. See 4 is in love with 8, and 8 likes 4 enough, but 6 has always been edging her way in to where she doesn't belong even though she should totally be with 7. 9 has this weird cougar power over 8 (even though she's totally with 10) and seduces him all the time and meanwhile poor 5 is so in love with 4 but hasn't got the guts to tell her about it. 3 is kind of dumb, 2 is smarter than average, and 1 is, I guess as the song goes, the lonliest.

I've told friends about this in the past and have gotten the impression that I'm kind of weird, but this radio show has verified it for me. I'm not weird, I'm brilliant!! Ok, maybe not brilliant since my memory for stuff is so-so. Although I must say I used to have a hell of a talent for remembering when people's birthdays are. Now I just have facebook. Facebook is blue. Just like the numbers 5 and 8... and January. But we won't get into the months.

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